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My Father used to tell me the story of this tiger that was lapping up and quenching his thirst standing of the brink of this river.
And then a lamb ventures to approach the river bank and starts quenching her thirst a little away from the tiger.
The tiger then bristles with anger and pique and shouts:
"I am going to kill and eat you"
"But why, my lord?"
"You are polluting the river by drinking from it with your foul mouth and ruining it for me"
"But I am downstream from you, my lord; and certainly I can't be polluting the water that comes to you first"
"But your grandfather had insulted my grandfather, I have been told, and so I am going to kill and eat you anyway"
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The British are rather expert at this game and they have a phrase for it:
"Give the dog a bad name and hang it"
Unlike other colonials, the British always tried to give a lame excuse before annexing territories and kingdoms. For instance they would eye the kingdom of this friendly regime among the thousands into which India was then divided. And discover that its kingling had no issues nor any hope of getting one. Then they would pass a law that kings who don't have issues won't be allowed to adopt one, and so his kingdom would automatically lapse into the British Empire.
It was such draconian laws that antagonized Indians and led to the sepoy mutiny or whatever you like to call it.
And then Queen Victoria took direct control of the British Indian territories and appointed a Viceroy who was asked not to play foul games with the remaining 565 Indian Kingdoms.
So, the Viceroys appointed several Vice-Viceroys called Residents who would establish themselves in the capitals of the sundry Indian Kingdoms, collect their lagans (taxes or tributes...all arbitrarily decided by them) and see that the king doesn't start any mischief...much like the Chief Invigilators of IIT KGP Exam Halls (sans their teaching duties)
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A friend of mine, a Lecturer in the ME Dept in the 1960s, was not getting promoted and wanted to quit IIT KGP desperately.
So, he applied to a prestigious Australian University for a position enclosing his bio-data (cv was an unknown term then).
And after an agonizing wait for the snail mail, he got a sweet reply:
"We are very sorry that we have no suitable position at the moment commensurate with your qualifications...yours very truly etc..."
He then wrote back saying:
"I would be grateful to you if you can offer me any position that is available"
And got the reply:
"There is no position available for you, period"
One should learn to read between the lines if one wants to avoid unpleasantness...
Mind-reading is the essential requisite for success in any post...Prince or Puppet..
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My Father used to tell me the story of this tiger that was lapping up and quenching his thirst standing of the brink of this river.
And then a lamb ventures to approach the river bank and starts quenching her thirst a little away from the tiger.
The tiger then bristles with anger and pique and shouts:
"I am going to kill and eat you"
"But why, my lord?"
"You are polluting the river by drinking from it with your foul mouth and ruining it for me"
"But I am downstream from you, my lord; and certainly I can't be polluting the water that comes to you first"
"But your grandfather had insulted my grandfather, I have been told, and so I am going to kill and eat you anyway"
******************************************************************************************************
The British are rather expert at this game and they have a phrase for it:
"Give the dog a bad name and hang it"
Unlike other colonials, the British always tried to give a lame excuse before annexing territories and kingdoms. For instance they would eye the kingdom of this friendly regime among the thousands into which India was then divided. And discover that its kingling had no issues nor any hope of getting one. Then they would pass a law that kings who don't have issues won't be allowed to adopt one, and so his kingdom would automatically lapse into the British Empire.
It was such draconian laws that antagonized Indians and led to the sepoy mutiny or whatever you like to call it.
And then Queen Victoria took direct control of the British Indian territories and appointed a Viceroy who was asked not to play foul games with the remaining 565 Indian Kingdoms.
So, the Viceroys appointed several Vice-Viceroys called Residents who would establish themselves in the capitals of the sundry Indian Kingdoms, collect their lagans (taxes or tributes...all arbitrarily decided by them) and see that the king doesn't start any mischief...much like the Chief Invigilators of IIT KGP Exam Halls (sans their teaching duties)
********************************************************************************************************
A friend of mine, a Lecturer in the ME Dept in the 1960s, was not getting promoted and wanted to quit IIT KGP desperately.
So, he applied to a prestigious Australian University for a position enclosing his bio-data (cv was an unknown term then).
And after an agonizing wait for the snail mail, he got a sweet reply:
"We are very sorry that we have no suitable position at the moment commensurate with your qualifications...yours very truly etc..."
He then wrote back saying:
"I would be grateful to you if you can offer me any position that is available"
And got the reply:
"There is no position available for you, period"
One should learn to read between the lines if one wants to avoid unpleasantness...
Mind-reading is the essential requisite for success in any post...Prince or Puppet..
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